Gabrielle Arsiaga/News-Sun
Many businesses, churches, and other buildings found themselves “tagged”last weekend.
Hobbs Police and the Lea County Sheriff’s Office are working towards finding the vandals who are responsible for thousands of dollars worth of damages the weekend of Feb. 17-19.
Around 6:48 a.m., Feb. 19, at St. Helena Catholic Church, at 100 East Bender Boulevard, a call came in about the graffiti.
According to a HPD incident report, parishioners noticed graffiti on the front door of the church and the school building when arriving for services. They told officers there was no graffiti the day before.
Officers saw graffiti on the building, east of the front door, with the word “cosmo” painted twice. On the front door in white spray paint the word “bozs” was spray painted. To the west of the front door “bozs” was painted in black.
On the school building, the wall facing north had “Cosmo” spray painted in black. On the side of the building, on a garage door, “bozs” was spray painted in white.
On the wall facing east of the main church, a person climbed up to a roof area and spray painted “cosmo” and “bo7s” in black paint.
HPD officers were unable to identify where the “tags” came from. The estimated damages done to St. Helena school and church is around $1,000.Around 9:52 a.m. a report about more graffiti at Saturday’s restaurant, at 312 West Bender Street, was called in.
The graffiti on the building read “poker” and “boks,” which appears to be similar to what was written on St. Helena school and church, just down the street.
Around 10 a.m. another report of graffiti vandalism was reported at New Mexico Junior College, at 5317 North Lovington Highway. LCSO deputies responded to NMJC in reference to the vandalism. The sign vandalized was located at the entrance of the campus, on the east side of Highway 18. NMJC security told deputies there were no cameras in the area that would’ve recorded anything. Security also told LCSO deputies, a year ago, the sign had graffiti on it in the same spot and it cost the school around $500 to fix.
Another location of graffiti reported to HPD was on the 500 block of East Gypsy.
“(Deputies) went by the location and took a photo of the graffiti. The marks on that building were the same color and style matching the marks left on the NMJC’s sign. (Deputies) believe the incidents are connected or done by the same person,” the LCSO incident report stated.In addition, the News-Sun building, at 201 North Thorp Street, was also vandalized with the word “cosmo” spray painted in black.
As of press time, HPD’s PIO Reanna Alarcon said the department does not have any suspects at this time.
